2011 British Grand Prix preview

Silverstone will have a very different look when the teams begin the British Grand Prix weekend there tomorrow.

The old pits, considered cramped by modern F1 standards, still stand – but they’ll be used by GP2 teams.

The F1 paddock will be adjacent to the spectacular new Silverstone Wing complete with a new start/finish straight heading into Abbey corner.

On lap one the cars will be flat out through the first two corners before bunching up at the tight Village and The Loop, which could provide some exciting action.

Aside from the new pits, the circuit configuration remains much the same as last year. But the flattening of some bumps should allow the drivers to find a little more speed around what is already one of the fastest tracks on the calendar.

Silverstone’s many high-speed corners will make spectacular viewing for the capacity crowd expected over the weekend – race organisers predict a three-day figure of over 310,000.

Red Bull aim for three-in-a-row

It’s the kind of track where Red Bull have thrived, and the team have won here for the last two years in a row: Sebastian Vettel in 2009, Mark Webber last year.

But at the last race at a circuit similar in style to Silverstone – the Circuit de Catalunya – McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was able to put Vettel under pressure.

There was an air of defeatism among the Ferrari and McLaren drivers after Valencia, and not unjustifiably: Vettel has finished in the top two positions in every race this year.

If they are going to fight back against his ever-growing championship lead, they can’t afford to wait any longer. Silverstone marks the first of three races in four weeks where Vettel could put the destiny of the title beyond any serious doubt.

Aside from the usual package of upgrades, teams also have to contend with further changes to the rules on exhaust-blown diffusers. Red Bull admit it will cost them some performance, but the same surely goes for their nearest rivals as well.

Losing most of their capacity to generate downforce by blowing hot exhaust gasses through the diffuser will affect balance as well as performance. That is likely to be a critical area for the teams during practice.

But Ricciardo, another product of Red Bull’s Driver Development programme, comes highly recommended. He won the 2009 British F3 crown comfortably and came close to winning the World Series by Renault in his rookie season last year.

With several appearances for Red Bull in testing under his belt, plus stints in every first practice session so far this year for Toro Rosso, Ricciardo is about as well-prepared as a rookie can be in 2011.

HRT have been nipping at the heels of Virgin in recent races. Ricciardo will do his reputation plenty of good if he can get on or near the pace of team mate Vitantonio Liuzzi and help propel the team forward.

Who have you got your eye on at the British Grand Prix? Who will win? Have your say in the comments.

114 comments on Silverstone has a new look but expect the same winner

I honestly don’t think the changes to OTBD regulations are going to shake up the running order the way some people are expecting them to. In fact, I think some people have convinced themselves that Red Bull’s achilles heel have been exposed and that it will now be open season on them simply because they want to see a different result. I can’t blame them for wanting it, but I can’t applaud them for constructing the fantasy.

Have to agree with you, yes Red Bull may have gained themselves a bit of quali pace with their engine maps, but they still have a fundamentally fast car, and its not like other teams haven’t been developing those tools as well.

As for the race itself I really think it depends on the weather, it we get changeable conditions with some combination of wet and dry then I wouldn’t bet against either Jenson or Lewis… but otherwise I suspect its going to be another Red Bull dominated race.

I agree, the most I am hoping for is a closing of the performance gap. The Red Bull is quick throughout it’s design, I have drawn hope from some Adrian Neweys comments this week but I don’t think the other teams will draw much of an advantage, unless the weather turns and plays a part in either quali or the race.

Webber had the upper hand on pace for a few races in the middle of the season, but he also gained a lot of points because he had better reliability than Vettel. Some might also say because Vettel crashed more, but Webber did a fair bit of that too (Valencia, Korea).

The proof is that Webber never had any reliability issues that ended his races last year. Same goes for 2009. The Red Bull was a perfectly reliable car if driven properly. Unfortunately, young Vettel used too many revs, locked his brakes up, rode the kerbs very hard etc. which led to his failures.

A little harsh Keith,you give Vettel a break because of reliability problems early last year but fail to give Webber credit for great drives when his qualifying and/or race have been compromised by reliability problems this year. But yes Vettel will win unless he has car problems, Mark will not be allowed to be the “one” in a RB “one-two”.

Because there is little evidence that Webber would have beaten Vettel without the issues. Vettel was clearly leading in Korea and Australia 10 when his car failed. Webber was 3rd behind Vettel and a slower car in Australia and Valencia before having problems.

Ok, he drove a good race in China, but why didn’t he turn up on Sunday in Barcelona? He had every chance to be the “one” in a “one two”. That’s why he doesn’t get a break- he doesn’t take opportunities to beat Vettel like Button and Hamilton have (and Alonso may have done in Monaco before the red flag).

Because there is little evidence that Webber would have beaten Vettel without the issues.

Exactly. I wish everyone would stop moaning about Webber’s reliability. I’m a Webber fan; I love him, I cheer for him and all of the rest. But there’s no denying he’s being outclassed this year. Sure, he’s had some bad luck, but I doubt it has affected his results much at all. After all, his team mate is none other than Sebastian Vettel – and no-one can beat him under normal circumstances.

My point is, stop with all of the “Webber would be beating Sebastian if his KERS weren’t failing nonsense” – because there’s no evidence to suggest he would. There’s much more to suggest that he in fact wouldn’t have. You make me feel embarrassed to be a Webber fan, if I’m honest.

Why is it a surprise jenson has never had a podium at his home GP? He was competitive 1 year out of his first 9 seasons (04) before Brawn. sine he’s had to battle the 2 red bulls, Hamilton and Alonso.. Given normal performance you think he’s finishing ahead of those on a racers circuit?

Let’s eliminate the nonsense here. Button was a very circumstantial winner, only because he happened to have a car that was faster by a full second for most of the season than anyone else’s. Aside from his year w/ Brawn, he has done next to nothing. I agree w/ Sparky, JB not having been on the podium here should not be considered a surprise. The surprise would be if he **had** been on the podium, considering that he is nowhere near the elite of the sport (Alonso, Vettel, Lewis, Nico, Michael, Kubica). Simple as that.

Following his championship year with Brawn, Button has won 3 races thus far. Damn good ones too. I’d say that’s something. On top of that he’s fared much better against Hamilton than anybody ever predicted. Credit where credit’s due.

Its amazing isn’t it,despite driving for years in second rate teams driver X is useless and only won the WDC because he had the best car. Whereas driver Y who won the WDC in the best car is still the worlds best driver even if he is not winning any races now he has only the second best car.

Heâ€™s currently joint second in the championship, but obviously there just on pure luck.

I wouldn’t say its only down to luck. We have to give Jenson credit for never making any driver errors. He picks up the pieces when other drivers falter. He is a living example of the Aesop fable between the tortoise and the hare.

But I can understand f1fan’s point of view, I do not think I will ever consider Jenson a serious championship contender either.

He had his one year in the sun in 2009, and I’m pretty confident that unless he has Rubens as a teammate again, and a car as dominant as the RB6/7, there is no way in hell that he will win another championship.

Letâ€™s eliminate the nonsense here. Button was a very circumstantial winner, only because he happened to have a car that was faster by a full second for most of the season than anyone elseâ€™s.

So why didn’t Rubens win the WDC in 2009? And why are we all falling over Vettel and proclaiming his genius for walking away with this title in pretty much EXACTLY the same circumstances as you describe above.

This Button bashing has to stop. The man is quality, and anyone who watched him drag BAR’s far higher uup the grid than they should have been in the early 00’s will recognise that.

Nico Rosberg is most definitely not the “elite” of the sport, he’s achieved less than Button. As has Kubica. You could argue that Kubica’s sole win was due to the pitlane incident that wiped out the people in front of him, and Nick Heidfeld not being that good tbh. Jenson Button is a World Champion, and he won it because he drove well, was consistently in the points and only failed to finish once. Yes there was an element of luck, but there has always been luck in F1, just look at last year.

I think you need to rewatch the 2009 season because you are very wrong about it; Button had a car that was MAX 0.5 seconds fastest for only the first 7 races, after that the Red Bull overtook them and by the end of the season Mclaren had also overtaken them.
Button is a very fast driver and when he is happy with the car’s set up he is as fast as anybody, to quote Martin Brundle “Jenson’s car is in balance, the rest of the field had better take note. He is simply unbeatable at that point.”
I also think that Button is the best wet weather driver on the grid.
Button is joint second in the WDC beating his team mate and also Alonso so I do not know in the slightest how you get the idea that he is not near the elite of the sport seeing as he is in the elite of sport.

Not to mention he’s had a competitive car more often than some give him credit for. At the very least, he could’ve finished on the podium anytime from 2004 to 2006. He had LOTS of podiums in 2004, started P2 here in 2005, and won a race in 2006.

Being a couple of cards short of a full deck I’m slightly confused as to how the banning of off throttle EBDs can be policed as it’s something (like ‘flexi wings’) which isn’t obvious to look at when the cars are being inspected.
I would be very greatful if someone could explain how it can be proved that no teams’ EBD is working at more than 10% off throttle. Many thanks..

blowing the diffuser is accomplished using certain types of engine mapping which keep the throttle open during braking. The cars all run a standardised ECU provided by the FIA (actually built by mclaren) and the software on these ECUs is also scrutinised. There’s no way that they should be able to carry on doing it without it being detected by the stewards.

I was under the impression that the teams now must re-route the exhaust to the top of the car, like we saw in most cars from 2000-2008. So i’d think it would be obvious, visibly, if that exhaust gases won’t be feeding the diffuser.

Firstly, I’m Australian (hands up for that), but secondly, and more importantly, it would be intriguing to see another major talent enter the sport to compete with Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel in ability (poor Kubica would be included if he was driving atm).

This obviously won’t be seen either way in concrete form whilst he drives for HRT, but I’m feeling a buzz from the press about him that I haven’t felt since Hamilton and Vettel entered the sport.

If he can match Liuzzi, even if he “only” gets within 5-10 seconds on track by the end of the race (barring any outside influences), I suspect that we’ll have another exciting and potential future star in Formula One.

Whether he’s a potential World Champion like Vettel/Hamilton/Alonso, or an excitement machine like Kobayashi, will remain to be seen, but how exciting! :D

If Mark Webber wants to turn his season around it’s got to be here. He showed Vettel up big time last year so if he can use that to his psychological advantage he can pull something out of the bag. Expecting a RBR front row but an interesting first lap with the new layout.

That’s a good point, but unfortunately it’s a chicken and egg situation too. I think Webber needs two or three wins, or much better results than Vettel, to even start believing he could still challenge and take a real interest in this season. Just now he’s not even close to challenging Vettel from second during the race, yet alone qualifying. And worse RBR management appear like that suits them just fine.

Egg came first many years before the first chicken it’s not hard. :) If you’re asking what came first the chicken or the chicken egg then the answer is the chicken. The egg it hatched out of was the egg of the animal that the chicken evolved from, the first chicken egg came after the first chicken laid an egg.

The next 3 tracks, Webber is the most recent winner at (Silverstone, Nurburgring, Budapest) so he’s got to start cutting the gap down (I feel) if he’s to have any chance.
I’d expect Webber to be very strong this weekend, whether he can beat Vettel… only time will tell

I don’t think there will be any chance of Webber being allowed to challenge Vettel if Vettel is on the front row. But I expect that future F1 historians will be discussing Webber as one of the champions that never was, because he was always in the wrong team at the right time or the right team at the wrong time, and because he was the only driver to best 10 times WDC Seb Vettel driving the same car.

I still think Vettel’s the favourite to win guys. It’s just it was around this time last year where Webber was really making his mark (sorry) and although Vettel is well and truly out performing him, it’s an important stage for anyone wanting a shot other than the defending WDC at the moment.

Pray tell DavidA what car was Webber driving , and how can you win if you do not “best” all other entrants. Don’t let your bias blind you to inconvenient facts, I have not said MW is better just that he has on occasion gotten the better of his “best driver ever” team mate.

Mike-Damon, M.Schumacher, you know that old has-been who only won because he had the best car, won 7 WDC, had some off years when his best car wasn’t and was older than SV when he started winning, want to bet against SV winning 10.

@ hohum, pointing out that driver X “bested” driver driver Y is completely pointless if only done “on occasion”. For every race Webber “bested” Vettel, Vettel “bested” Webber twice. We’re still waiting for Webber to beat Vettel in a single race this year.

It’s like boasting that you’ve won the first leg of a UEFA Champions League tie 2-1, only to lose the second leg 4-0.

I really believe that Mark just can’t quite get his head around these Pirellis. Plus he’s getting on a bit and this year his personality has lost it’s sparkle. He still tells it like it is, but he seems a little… um… flat. Poor guy. I really feel he missed his window. Imagine if he’d taken that Renault contract all those years ago. We may have seen something special. I tell you one thing for sure though, he wouldn’t be good mates with Fernando if that had happened!

New look, perhaps a new winner but how about a new trophy policy? What’s this story about the Cup not being left in the hands of the winner even just for walking away from the podium and not getting a replica?

If they tried to pull this “you can look, barely touch” policy when handing out the crowns at those pageant competitions, hell would break loose.

As Bas said, it’s a very valuable trophy and a piece of pure British racing history. The winner is handed it for the podium bit, then it’s snatched from him and locked away.

Vettel asked for a replica in 2009 when he won and apparently, two years, still hasn’t received it. This is definitely enough to make his blood boil and want Sunday’s win a whole lot more. The British should’ve been smart about this and just sent him the replica. They’re clearly giving away motivation to the competition!